Presently, a securities dealer seeking to cover short positions will individually contact other clients, dealers, brokers or securities lenders to do so. This process is generally time consuming, costly and at times inefficient. Furthermore, unless the dealer seeking to cover short positions contacts each and every broker, dealer or securities lender, there is no way to ensure that the dealer will find the security they need to cover a short position.
What is desired, therefore, is a method and system that will provide an efficient, cost effective centralized mechanism by which a dealer seeking to cover short positions will find available long positions at a favorable rate. These and other advantages are achieved by the invention described herein below.